TL;DR
Pickup points let customers choose a nearby collection location at checkout — a post office counter, a parcel locker at a supermarket, or your own store. You enable them on a shipping option, choose which types of locations to show, and set how many options appear. Rules let you hide unsuitable locations automatically (for example, hiding small lockers when the order is too heavy to fit).
What pickup points are
When you ship an order, the default expectation is home delivery: the carrier brings the parcel to the customer's front door. Pickup points are an alternative — instead of delivering to the customer's address, the carrier sends the parcel to a nearby collection location. The customer receives a notification when it arrives and goes to collect it at a time that suits them.
Customers often prefer pickup points because they do not need to be home when the parcel arrives, and many locations have long opening hours or are accessible around the clock.
From your side, enabling pickup points usually reduces failed deliveries and the cost of re-delivery attempts.
Types of pickup points
| Type | What it is | Typical example | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Service point | A staffed counter where staff accept and hand out parcels | Post office branch, DHL service point inside a supermarket | Larger or more valuable parcels; customers who prefer personal handover |
| Parcel locker | An automated indoor cabinet — customer receives a code to open their compartment | Locker bank inside a shopping mall or grocery store | Fast, contactless collection; parcels that fit in a standard locker compartment |
| Outdoor parcel locker | Same as a parcel locker but installed outdoors | Locker unit in a car park or outside a petrol station | 24/7 collection in any weather; no store opening hours required |
| Letter box | A residential or building-level delivery point for small flat items | Home letter box, building entrance mail slot | Small, flat shipments that fit without requiring a staffed handover |
| Store pickup | Collection from your own physical store | Your own shop or warehouse | Keeping the collection experience on your own premises |
Home delivery also appears as a point type in the system configuration, but it represents standard address delivery rather than a physical collection location.
Enabling pickup points on a shipping option
Before customers can see pickup point options, you must turn them on for the relevant shipping option.
- Open your checkout setup and go to Shipping Options.
- Select the shipping option you want to edit, or create a new one.
- Find the Pickup section and toggle on "Supports pickup points." This is the master switch — nothing else in this section takes effect until it is on.
- Choose which point types to include. Leave the list empty to include all available types, or select specific types to limit what is shown.
- Set the limit — how many nearby points to display. The default is 10, which works well for most stores.
- Save the option.
Three boolean fields control pickup point display. supports_pickup_points must be enabled for pickup points to show at all. display_pickup_point_list shows pickup points as a scrollable list, and display_pickup_point_map shows them on an interactive map. Both display_pickup_point_list and display_pickup_point_map default to true when supports_pickup_points is enabled. You can disable one or both to control the presentation format.
If you are setting up a carrier-specific method such as Posti Postipaketti or PostNord MyPack Collect, use a template instead of configuring from scratch. Templates pre-fill the carrier service and pickup settings correctly. See Add a pickup point shipping option for a full walkthrough.
Display options: list, map, and combined vs separate
Once pickup points are enabled, you can choose how they appear to customers.
Show pickup point list Displays a list of nearby locations the customer can scroll through and select. This is the most common display mode and works well on both desktop and mobile.
Show pickup point map Displays a map view with the nearby points marked as pins. Customers can click a pin to select that location. You can enable both the list and the map at the same time — many stores find that offering both increases conversion.
Listing mode: combined vs separate by type
When your customers can choose from more than one type of pickup point, you control how those types are grouped in the list.
| Mode | Value | How it looks | When to use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Combined | combined | All point types appear together in a single list, sorted by distance | Simplest experience; works well when all your point types are similar in the customer's eyes |
| Separate by type | separate_by_type | Points are grouped into sections — for example, "Service Points" followed by "Parcel Lockers" | Useful when point types are meaningfully different (e.g., staffed counters vs automated lockers) and customers benefit from knowing which is which before choosing |
Searching for nearby points
When a customer reaches the pickup point selection step, Shipit asks the carrier for locations near the customer's address. You choose how that search works.
Search by postal code Uses the customer's postcode to find nearby points. This is faster and works reliably in most countries.
Search by address Uses the full delivery address for a more precise location match. Useful in areas where a single postcode covers a large geographic area and distance matters.
Search radius You can set a radius in kilometres to limit how far from the customer the search looks. Leave this blank to use the carrier's own default radius, which is usually a sensible starting point. Set an explicit radius if you find the default returns locations that are too far away to be convenient.
Controlling which point types appear
You have two layers of control over which point types customers see.
Global exclusions (always applied)
Three toggles let you permanently exclude a point type from a shipping option regardless of other settings:
| Toggle | What it excludes |
|---|---|
| Exclude outdoor parcel lockers | Removes all outdoor locker locations |
| Exclude parcel lockers | Removes all indoor locker locations |
| Exclude service points | Removes all staffed counter locations |
Use these when a point type is never appropriate for this shipping option — for example, if your products never fit in a locker, you might exclude both locker types entirely.
Fine-grained control with rules
Rules let you show or hide specific point types based on conditions such as order weight, cart value, or destination. Unlike global exclusions, rules apply only when their conditions are met.
See the next section for details.
Filtering pickup points with rules
Rules run after the carrier returns a list of nearby points. They filter what the customer sees — they do not change what the carrier returns.
Available rule actions for pickup points:
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| Show service point | Makes staffed counters visible |
| Hide service point | Removes staffed counters from the list |
| Show parcel locker | Makes indoor lockers visible |
| Hide parcel locker | Removes indoor lockers from the list |
| Show outdoor parcel locker | Makes outdoor lockers visible |
| Hide outdoor parcel locker | Removes outdoor lockers from the list |
| Show letter box | Makes letter box locations visible |
| Hide letter box | Removes letter box locations from the list |
A common example: hide parcel lockers for orders over 30 kg, because the parcel will not fit in a standard locker compartment. You would set a condition of cart weight greater than 30,000 grams and an action of "hide parcel locker."
For a full walkthrough of setting up this rule, see Add a pickup point shipping option. For full documentation on the rules system, see Rules.
stop_after_first_match
Some stores have more than one carrier configured and want to use a second carrier as a backup in case the first one returns no nearby pickup points. The "Stop after first match" setting controls what happens when multiple carrier APIs are queried.
When "Stop after first match" is on, Shipit stops querying carriers as soon as one of them returns results. This prevents the same locations being listed twice if two carriers happen to serve the same area.
When "Stop after first match" is off, Shipit collects results from all configured carriers and combines them. This can be useful if you want to show the maximum number of nearby options by pooling results from multiple networks.
Turn on "Stop after first match" if your backup carrier covers the same pickup point network as your primary carrier, or if you find customers are seeing duplicate locations.
Common mistakes
Leaving "Supports pickup points" off This is the master toggle. Every other pickup point setting is ignored until this is enabled.
Selecting a carrier service that does not support pickup points If the carrier service linked to your shipping option does not have pickup point capability, the option will appear at checkout but return no locations. Always verify that the carrier service you have selected supports pickup point delivery.
Setting the point limit too low In less densely populated areas, a low limit (such as 3 or 5) may mean customers see only locations that are inconveniently far away. The default of 10 is a good balance for most stores.
Confusing global exclusions with rules Global exclusion toggles always apply — they are unconditional. Rules apply only when their conditions are met. If you have excluded parcel lockers using the global toggle, a "Show parcel locker" rule will not override it.
Not testing with a real address Pickup point availability depends on the carrier's data for a specific location. Always test your setup by entering a real customer address in a test order to confirm that points are returned and displayed correctly.
What to do next
- Follow the step-by-step guide to set up a pickup point shipping option: Add a pickup point shipping option
- Learn how rules work across all shipping options: Rules
- Browse carrier-specific templates in the template picker inside your checkout setup